I want to learn brushing for a long time but it's not so easy as you may know. I don't like the normal technique that everyone is doing. I'd like to learn an other way of brushing.
Here are a few pictures to let you know what I'm talking about. (Thanks to sam's FB page https://www.facebook.com/samvesters.automotive )



Of course there are a few other choppers who are making pictures like these.
The biggest question is. How can you make it that damn realistic? I would be really really thankful if someone made a tutorial video about it. I know you are really busy but it would help us.
Before you ask I have a wacom tablet, so it would not be a big problem

Now that I have a tablet and have learned what actually makes paint look realistic, I now brush this way.
It's not technique that effects the realism really, it's the colours that you actually put down - we all have our own unique methods to getting this right. Many of us do use this technique to map out basic colour, but everyone is different.

The key to being able to brush like this is practice, and an understanding of how light around the car works. A good reference picture is also very useful, and will give better results than if you were trying to work it out in your head, as it not only gives you colour samples, but shows you where light should fall.

One of the mistakes we all make when we're starting to brush is that we assume that because it's either a red car or a black car, then it should reflect those colours - we can see the car is red, so it must be reflecting red right? But this is infact not the case - look at the side of the black cayenne, lower down it's reflecting a really bright pinkish brown - not black at all. To begin with adding these random colours will take a lot of effort - it just doesn't seem logical, and it takes time to break down these mental barriers. Another issue is with the amount of contrast between light and dark, something which is often overlooked. If you look here, the paint is completely black in some areas, but almost white in others - this is vital for a glossy look.

The next issue is understanding how the light will fall across the car, often we see a horizon line, with a reflection pasted across it of a building for example, that is both above and below the horizon line. Due to the curved shape of the car, any reflection should first be massively stretched, and it should only appear in a certain area, not over several. A building will make it's own reflection that flows with the rest of the horizon line, not be overlayed on it.

It can often be hard to work out why reflections don't look right close up - they key to detail is getting the overall correct lighting and colour, not the detail. I can prove this like so

If you take rough brushing and zoom out, it should look identical to a photo zoomed out:


If your lighting is wrong, then it won't.

There is no simple answer or shortcut to becoming good at brushing - you just have to spend lots of time looking at real cars and photos, working out what the colour you see is actually a reflection of, and thinking why it might do that. Then you have to try and incorporate this into your work - and this takes time. Starting with a reference and building up to bigger things is a good way to do this. Even when we've been doing this for a long time, we still have to experiment, and often redo sections to get the lighting to look convincing - there is no set formula.

So just remember - it's overall lighting colour and contrast that is most important to realism, not the amount of detail.

Good luck

Thank you so much, it helped. But the thing I don't understand is how you make it from the scratches to a real chop. Yes you have to use smudge tool but on that black cayenne for example. What was the technique?

Actually I was trying to make something like this. This Lupo came out of it

Well, the lighting and tones are all mapped out, and this is the most important stage - if this is wrong, then the final image won't be any good.

You will notice there are lots of 'scratches' as you call it - these are simply the brush strokes, and we all have different ways of building this up. I start with a round brush, 90% hardness, and add a basic base colour with maybe 3 or 4 different colours, 100% opacity. This will just work out roughly where light and dark will be. With a slightly smaller brush and 50% opacity, I will then keep drawing on top, taking new colour samples, building up the colour and tone that I want. You should then get to a stage similar to that on the black cayenne.

From here you have to just use smaller brushes, lower opacity, and keep gradually building up the colour so that it flows together. When you've almost got it smooth (just before last step) you can switch to 20% opacity soft brushes (hardness 0%) just to smooth it for the final section.



This was all done with the brush tool and those original 3 colours - no extra ones were sampled, and no blur or smudge needed. I might be able to create a video tutorial on this if it's needed.


Edit: If that lupo is brushed, then you're on the right track - you just need some more sharper reflections on the bonnet, where the clouds are, and some extra contrast between light and dark, and I think in this case, the lighting is perhaps a bit too smooth - needs some sharper edges on reflections here and there

Made a few small changes, just to give you an idea of the kind of stuff to look out for


1) Try not to have the reflections flowing on too perfectly where there are split lines - it makes it look as if there's nothing there
2) Paint often looks darker higher up, especially when the sun is low in the sky like this - darken upwards pointing surfaces
3) Be brave with those bonnet reflections! Really brighten them up

I think just getting in the correct lighting on the windows and rims will also help massively - looking at the thumbnail shows that you're actually very close to how the lighting should be

Yes a video would help a lot.
I agree what you said about the Lupo, I'll fix it soon. I was trying to make it realistic but it went too blurry.

I saw that chops when they made and i thought that is impossible for me.....
So I agree with Many a video will be help a lot ....

I Like to see a video from it. I think that when i see it I understand how to create a nice flow with colors.

They use tablet for drawing like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHh7pEFkF44]

or they use a graphic tablet , wich is connected to pc ,and use photshop and sketchbook pro